1.
Erie County, New York
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Erie County is a county in the U. S. state of New York. As of the 2010 census, the population was 919,040, the countys name comes from Lake Erie, which in turn comes from the Erie tribe of Native Americans who lived south and east of the lake before 1654. Erie County is part of the Buffalo–Niagara Falls metropolitan area, the countys southern part is known as the Southtowns. When counties were established in New York State in 1683, present-day Erie County was Indian territory, at this time, all of Western New York was part of Ontario County. In 1802, Genesee County was created out of Ontario County, in 1808, Niagara County was created out of Genesee County. In 1821, Erie County was created out of Niagara County, the first towns formed in present-day Erie County were the Town of Clarence and the Town of Willink. Clarence comprised the northern portion of Erie county, and Willink the southern part, Clarence is still a town, but Willink was quickly subdivided into other towns. When Erie County was established in 1821, it consisted of the towns of Amherst, Aurora, Boston, Clarence, Collins, Concord, Eden, Evans, Hamburg, Holland, Sardinia, and Wales. The county has a number of properties on the National Register of Historic Places listings in Erie County, the Town Line Fire Department supports the slogan Last of the Rebels due to their Confederate ties. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has an area of 1,227 square miles. Erie County is in the portion of upstate New York. It is the most populous county in upstate New York outside of the New York City metropolitan area, the county also lies on the international border between the United States and Canada, bordering the Province of Ontario. The northern border of the county is Tonawanda Creek, part of the southern border is Cattaraugus Creek. Other major streams include Buffalo Creek, Cayuga Creek, Cazenovia Creek, Scajaquada Creek, Eighteen Mile Creek, the countys northern half, including Buffalo and its suburbs, is relatively flat and rises gently up from the lake. The southern half, known as the Southtowns, is much hillier and is the northwesternmost foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, the highest elevation in the county is a hill in the Town of Sardinia that tops out at around 1,940 feet above sea level. The lowest ground is about 560 feet, on Grand Island at the Niagara River, the Onondaga Escarpment runs through the northern part of Erie County. The population density was 910 people per square mile, there were 415,868 housing units at an average density of 398 per square mile. 3. 27% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race,19. 6% were of German,17. 2% Polish,14. 9% Italian,11. 7% Irish and 5. 0% English ancestry according to Census 2000
2.
New York (state)
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New York is a state in the northeastern United States, and is the 27th-most extensive, fourth-most populous, and seventh-most densely populated U. S. state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south and Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont to the east. With an estimated population of 8.55 million in 2015, New York City is the most populous city in the United States, the New York Metropolitan Area is one of the most populous urban agglomerations in the world. New York City makes up over 40% of the population of New York State, two-thirds of the states population lives in the New York City Metropolitan Area, and nearly 40% lives on Long Island. Both the state and New York City were named for the 17th-century Duke of York, the next four most populous cities in the state are Buffalo, Rochester, Yonkers, and Syracuse, while the state capital is Albany. New York has a diverse geography and these more mountainous regions are bisected by two major river valleys—the north-south Hudson River Valley and the east-west Mohawk River Valley, which forms the core of the Erie Canal. Western New York is considered part of the Great Lakes Region and straddles Lake Ontario, between the two lakes lies Niagara Falls. The central part of the state is dominated by the Finger Lakes, New York had been inhabited by tribes of Algonquian and Iroquoian-speaking Native Americans for several hundred years by the time the earliest Europeans came to New York. The first Europeans to arrive were French colonists and Jesuit missionaries who arrived southward from settlements at Montreal for trade, the British annexed the colony from the Dutch in 1664. The borders of the British colony, the Province of New York, were similar to those of the present-day state, New York is home to the Statue of Liberty, a symbol of the United States and its ideals of freedom, democracy, and opportunity. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. On April 17,1524 Verrazanno entered New York Bay, by way of the now called the Narrows into the northern bay which he named Santa Margherita. Verrazzano described it as a vast coastline with a delta in which every kind of ship could pass and he adds. This vast sheet of water swarmed with native boats and he landed on the tip of Manhattan and possibly on the furthest point of Long Island. Verrazannos stay was interrupted by a storm which pushed him north towards Marthas Vineyard, in 1540 French traders from New France built a chateau on Castle Island, within present-day Albany, due to flooding, it was abandoned the next year. In 1614, the Dutch under the command of Hendrick Corstiaensen, rebuilt the French chateau, Fort Nassau was the first Dutch settlement in North America, and was located along the Hudson River, also within present-day Albany. The small fort served as a trading post and warehouse, located on the Hudson River flood plain, the rudimentary fort was washed away by flooding in 1617, and abandoned for good after Fort Orange was built nearby in 1623. Henry Hudsons 1609 voyage marked the beginning of European involvement with the area, sailing for the Dutch East India Company and looking for a passage to Asia, he entered the Upper New York Bay on September 11 of that year
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Administrative divisions of New York (state)
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The administrative divisions of New York are the various units of government that provide local government services in the state of New York. The state is divided into counties, cities, towns, and villages, each such government is granted varying home rule powers as provided by the New York Constitution. New York has various corporate entities that serve purposes that are also local governments, such as school. New York has 62 counties, which are subdivided into 932 towns and 62 cities, in total, the state has more than 3,400 active local governments and more than 4,200 taxing jurisdictions. They do so while adhering to the United States Constitution and the Constitution of the State of New York, articles VIII and IX of the state constitution establish the rights and responsibilities of the municipal governments. The New York State Constitution provides for democratically elected bodies for counties, cities, towns. These legislative bodies are granted the power to local laws as needed in order to provide services to their citizens. The county is the administrative division of New York. There are sixty-two counties in the state, five of the counties are boroughs of the city of New York and do not have functioning county governments. Such services generally include law enforcement and public safety, social and health services, every county outside of New York City has a county seat, which is the location of county government. Nineteen counties operate under county charters, while 38 operate under the provisions of the County Law. Although all counties have a certain latitude to govern themselves, charter counties are afforded greater home rule powers, sixteen counties are governed by a Board of Supervisors, composed of the supervisors of its constituent towns and cities. In most of counties, each supervisors vote is weighted in accordance with the towns population in order to abide by the U. S. Supreme Court mandate of one person. Other counties have legislative districts of equal population, which may cross municipal borders, most counties in New York do not use the term Board of Supervisors. 34 counties have a County Legislature, six counties have a Board of Legislators, the five counties, or boroughs, of New York City are governed by a 51-member City Council. In non-charter counties, the legislative body exercises executive power as well, many, but not all, charter counties have an elected executive who is independent of the legislature, the exact form of government is defined in the County Charter. In New York, each city is a highly autonomous incorporated area that, with the exceptions of New York City, cities in New York are classified by the U. S. Census Bureau as incorporated places. They provide almost all services to their residents and have the highest degree of home rule, also, villages are part of a town, with residents who pay taxes to and receive services from the town
4.
ZIP Code
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ZIP Codes are a system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service since 1963. The term ZIP, an acronym for Zone Improvement Plan, was chosen to suggest that the travels more efficiently, and therefore more quickly. The basic format consists of five numerical digits, an extended ZIP+4 code, introduced in 1983, includes the five digits of the ZIP Code, a hyphen, and four additional digits that determine a more specific location within a given ZIP Code. The term ZIP Code was originally registered as a servicemark by the U. S. Postal Service, USPS style for ZIP is all caps and the c in code is also capitalized, although style sheets for some publications use sentence case or lowercase. The early history and context of postal codes began with postal district/zone numbers, the United States Post Office Department implemented postal zones for numerous large cities in 1943. For example, Mr. John Smith 3256 Epiphenomenal Avenue Minneapolis 16, by the early 1960s a more organized system was needed, and on July 1,1963, non-mandatory five-digit ZIP Codes were introduced nationwide. Three months later, on October 1,1963, the U. S, an earlier list in June had proposed capitalized abbreviations ranging from two to five letters. The abbreviations have remained unchanged, with one exception, according to the historian of the U. S. Robert Moon, an employee of the post office, is considered the father of the ZIP Code, he submitted his proposal in 1944 while working as a postal inspector. The post office gives credit to Moon only for the first three digits of the ZIP Code, which describe the sectional center facility or sec center, an SCF is a central mail processing facility with those three digits. The SCF sorts mail to all post offices with those first three digits in their ZIP Codes, the mail is sorted according to the final two digits of the ZIP Code and sent to the corresponding post offices in the early morning. Sectional centers do not deliver mail and are not open to the public, Mail picked up at post offices is sent to their own SCF in the afternoon, where the mail is sorted overnight. The United States Post Office used a character, which it called Mr. ZIP. He was often depicted with a such as USE ZIP CODE in the selvage of panes of stamps or on labels contained in, or the covers of. In 1983, the U. S. Postal Service introduced an expanded ZIP Code system that it called ZIP+4, often called plus-four codes, add-on codes, or add ons. But initial attempts to promote use of the new format met with public resistance. For Post Office Boxes, the rule is that each box has its own ZIP+4 code. However, there is no rule, so the ZIP+4 Code must be looked up individually for each box. It is common to use add-on code 9998 for mail addressed to the postmaster,9999 for general delivery, for a unique ZIP Code, the add-on code is typically 0001
5.
Buffalo, New York
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Buffalo is a city in western New York state and the county seat of Erie County, on the eastern shores of Lake Erie at the head of the Niagara River. As of 2014, Buffalo is New York states 2nd-most populous city after New York City, the metropolitan area has a population of 1.13 million. After an economic downturn in the half of the 20th century, Buffalos economy has transitioned to sectors that include financial services, technology, biomedical engineering. Residents of Buffalo are called Buffalonians, the citys nicknames include The Queen City, The Nickel City and The City of Good Neighbors. The city of Buffalo received its name from a creek called Buffalo Creek. British military engineer Captain John Montresor made reference to Buffalo Creek in his journal of 1764, there are several theories regarding how Buffalo Creek received its name. In 1804, as principal agent opening the area for the Holland Land Company, Joseph Ellicott, designed a radial street and grid system that branches out from downtown like bicycle spokes similar to the street system he used in the nations capital. Although Ellicott named the settlement New Amsterdam, the name did not catch on, during the War of 1812, on December 30,1813, Buffalo was burned by British forces. The George Coit House 1818 and Samuel Schenck House 1823 are currently the oldest houses within the limits of the City of Buffalo, on October 26,1825, the Erie Canal was completed with Buffalo a port-of-call for settlers heading westward. At the time, the population was about 2,400, the Erie Canal brought about a surge in population and commerce, which led Buffalo to incorporate as a city in 1832. In 1845, construction began on the Macedonia Baptist Church, an important meeting place for the abolitionist movement, Buffalo was a terminus point of the Underground Railroad with many fugitive slaves crossing the Niagara River to Fort Erie, Ontario in search of freedom. During the 1840s, Buffalos port continued to develop, both passenger and commercial traffic expanded with some 93,000 passengers heading west from the port of Buffalo. Grain and commercial goods shipments led to repeated expansion of the harbor, in 1843, the worlds first steam-powered grain elevator was constructed by local merchant Joseph Dart and engineer Robert Dunbar. Darts Elevator enabled faster unloading of lake freighters along with the transshipment of grain in bulk from barges, canal boats, by 1850, the citys population was 81,000. At the dawn of the 20th century, local mills were among the first to benefit from hydroelectric power generated by the Niagara River, the city got the nickname City of Light at this time due to the widespread electric lighting. It was also part of the revolution, hosting the brass era car builders Pierce Arrow. President William McKinley was shot and mortally wounded by an anarchist at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo on September 6,1901, McKinley died in the city eight days later and Theodore Roosevelt was sworn in at the Wilcox Mansion as the 26th President of the United States. The Great Depression of 1929–39 saw severe unemployment, especially working class men
6.
Niagara Falls, New York
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Niagara Falls is a city in Niagara County, New York, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 50,193. It is adjacent to the Niagara River, across from the city of Niagara Falls, Ontario, the city is within the Buffalo–Niagara Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area as well as the Western New York region. While the city was occupied by Native Americans, Europeans who migrated to the Niagara Falls in the mid-17th century began to open businesses. After the 1960s, however, the city and region witnessed an economic decline consistent with the rest of the Rust Belt as industries left the city, globalization has played a large role in the decline of manufacturing in the city. Despite the decline in industry, Niagara Falls State Park. The population, however, has continued to decline from a peak of 102,394 in the 1960s due to the loss of manufacturing jobs in the area, before Europeans entered the area, it was dominated by the Neutral Nation of Native Americans. European migration into the area began in the 17th century, the first recorded European to visit the area was Frenchman Robert de la Salle, accompanied by Belgian priest Louis Hennepin, who was the first known European to see the falls. The influx of newcomers may have been a catalyst for already hostile native tribes to turn to warfare in competition for the fur trade. The City of Niagara Falls was incorporated on March 17,1892 from the villages of Manchester and Suspension Bridge, thomas Vincent Welch, a member of the charter committee and a New York state assemblyman and a second-generation Irishman, persuaded Governor Roswell P. Flower to sign the bill on St. Patricks Day, george W. Wright was elected the first mayor of Niagara Falls. By the end of the 19th century, the city was an industrial area. In 1927, the city annexed the village of La Salle from the Town of Niagara, the village was named for the French explorer Robert de la Salle. who built his ship, the Griffon, on the shores of the Niagara River five miles east. Industry and tourism grew steadily throughout the first half of the 20th century due to a demand for industrial products. Paper, rubber, plastics, petrochemicals, carbon insulators and abrasives were among the major industries. This prosperity would end by the late 1960s as aging industrial plants moved to less expensive locations, in addition, the falls were incompatible with modern shipping technology. In 1956, the Schoellkopf Power Plant on the river just downstream of the American Falls was critically damaged due to a massive collapse of the Niagara Gorge wall above it. This prompted the planning and construction of one of the largest hydroelectric plants to be built in North America at that time, causing an influx of workers
7.
President of the United States
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The President of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the executive branch of the government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces. The president is considered to be one of the worlds most powerful political figures, the role includes being the commander-in-chief of the worlds most expensive military with the second largest nuclear arsenal and leading the nation with the largest economy by nominal GDP. The office of President holds significant hard and soft power both in the United States and abroad, Constitution vests the executive power of the United States in the president. The president is empowered to grant federal pardons and reprieves. The president is responsible for dictating the legislative agenda of the party to which the president is a member. The president also directs the foreign and domestic policy of the United States, since the office of President was established in 1789, its power has grown substantially, as has the power of the federal government as a whole. However, nine vice presidents have assumed the presidency without having elected to the office. The Twenty-second Amendment prohibits anyone from being elected president for a third term, in all,44 individuals have served 45 presidencies spanning 57 full four-year terms. On January 20,2017, Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th, in 1776, the Thirteen Colonies, acting through the Second Continental Congress, declared political independence from Great Britain during the American Revolution. The new states, though independent of each other as nation states, desiring to avoid anything that remotely resembled a monarchy, Congress negotiated the Articles of Confederation to establish a weak alliance between the states. Out from under any monarchy, the states assigned some formerly royal prerogatives to Congress, only after all the states agreed to a resolution settling competing western land claims did the Articles take effect on March 1,1781, when Maryland became the final state to ratify them. In 1783, the Treaty of Paris secured independence for each of the former colonies, with peace at hand, the states each turned toward their own internal affairs. Prospects for the convention appeared bleak until James Madison and Edmund Randolph succeeded in securing George Washingtons attendance to Philadelphia as a delegate for Virginia. It was through the negotiations at Philadelphia that the presidency framed in the U. S. The first power the Constitution confers upon the president is the veto, the Presentment Clause requires any bill passed by Congress to be presented to the president before it can become law. Once the legislation has been presented, the president has three options, Sign the legislation, the bill becomes law. Veto the legislation and return it to Congress, expressing any objections, in this instance, the president neither signs nor vetoes the legislation
8.
Millard Fillmore
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Millard Fillmore was the 13th President of the United States, the last to be a member of the Whig Party while in the White House. A former congressman from New York, Fillmore was elected the nations 12th Vice President in 1848 and he was instrumental in getting the Compromise of 1850 passed, a bargain that led to a brief truce in the battle over slavery. He failed to win the Whig nomination for president in 1852, he gained the endorsement of the nativist Know Nothing Party four years later, Fillmore was born into poverty in the Finger Lakes area of New York state, his parents were tenant farmers during his formative years. He rose from poverty through study, and became a lawyer though he had formal schooling. He became prominent in the Buffalo area as an attorney and politician, was elected to the New York Assembly in 1828, and to the U. S. House of Representatives in 1832. Fillmore was a candidate for Speaker of the House when the Whigs took control of the chamber in 1841. Fillmore received the Whig vice presidential nomination in 1848 as Taylors running mate, and he was largely ignored by Taylor, including the dispensing of patronage in New York, on which Taylor consulted Weed and Seward. As vice president, Fillmore presided over debates in the Senate as Congress decided whether to allow slavery in the Mexican Cession. Fillmore supported Henry Clays Omnibus Bill though Taylor did not, after President Taylor died in July 1850, Fillmore dismissed the cabinet and changed the administrations policy. The new president exerted pressure to gain the passage of the Compromise, in foreign policy, Fillmore supported U. S. Navy expeditions to open trade in Japan, opposed French designs on Hawaii, and was embarrassed by Narciso Lópezs filibuster expeditions to Cuba. He sought election to a term in 1852, but was passed over by the Whigs in favor of Winfield Scott. As the Whig Party broke up after Fillmores presidency, many of Fillmores conservative wing joined the Know Nothings, in his 1856 candidacy as that partys nominee, Fillmore had little to say about immigration, instead focusing on the preservation of the Union, and won only Maryland. In his retirement, Fillmore was active in civic endeavors. He helped to found the University of Buffalo, serving as its first chancellor, during the American Civil War, Fillmore denounced secession and agreed that the Union must be maintained by force if necessary, but was critical of the war policies of Abraham Lincoln. After peace was restored, he supported the Reconstruction policies of President Andrew Johnson, obscure today, Fillmore has been praised by some for his foreign policy, but he is criticized by others for his enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act and for his association with the Know Nothings. Millard Fillmore was born in a log cabin, on a farm in what is now Moravia, Cayuga County, in the Finger Lakes region of New York state and his parents were Phoebe and Nathaniel Fillmore. He was the second of eight children and the oldest son, Nathaniel Fillmore Sr. was a member of the Green Mountain Boys, and served as an ensign and first lieutenant during the American Revolution. In 1767, Nathaniel Fillmore Sr. married Hepzibah Wood, the mother of Nathaniel Fillmore and grandmother of Millard Fillmore
9.
Roycroft
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Roycroft was a reformist community of craft workers and artists which formed part of the Arts and Crafts movement in the United States. Elbert Hubbard founded the community in 1895, in the village of East Aurora, New York, the work and philosophy of the group, often referred to as the Roycroft movement, had a strong influence on the development of American architecture and design in the early 20th century. The name Roycroft was chosen after the printers, Samuel and Thomas Roycroft, and beyond this, the word roycroft had a special significance to Elbert Hubbard, meaning Kings Craft. In guilds of early modern Europe, kings craftsmen were guild members who had achieved a degree of skill. The Roycroft insignia was borrowed from the monk Cassiodorus, a 13th-century bookbinder, Elbert Hubbard had been influenced by the ideas of William Morris on a visit to England. He was unable to find a publisher for his book Little Journeys, so inspired by Morriss Kelmscott Press, decided to set up his own press to print the book himself. The inspirational leadership of Hubbard attracted a group of almost 500 people by 1910, in 1915 Hubbard and his wife, noted suffragist Alice Moore Hubbard, died in the sinking of RMS Lusitania, and the Roycroft community went into a gradual decline. Following Elberts death, his son Bert took over the business, in attempts to keep his fathers business afloat, Bert proposed selling Roycroft’s furniture through major retailers. Sears & Roebuck eventually agreed to carry the furniture, but this was only a short lived success, fourteen original Roycroft buildings are located in the area of South Grove and Main Street in East Aurora. Known as the Roycroft Campus, this survival of an art colony was awarded National Historic Landmark status in 1986. The Elbert Hubbard Roycroft Museum, housed in the George and Gladys Scheidemantel House, in East Aurora is the main collection, William Wallace Denslow illustrated the The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and had a distinctive Roycroft-inspired logo. William Joseph Dard Hunter was an American authority on making paper by hand and he published a number of books on traditional, pre-industrial, techniques for making paper. S. Barnes, South Brunswick, ISBN 0-498-01052-X Cathers, David M. Y, ISBN 1-878822-43-8 Turgeon, Kitty and Rust, Robert The Arts and Crafts Home Friedman/Fairfax Publishers, New York, ISBN 1-56799-455-5 Rust, Robert et al. From the Rare Book and Special Collections Division at the Library of Congress Furniture Items from the 1906 Roycroft Catalog
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RMS Lusitania
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RMS Lusitania was a British ocean liner that a German submarine sank in World War I, causing a major diplomatic uproar. The ship was a holder of the Blue Riband, and briefly the worlds largest passenger ship until the completion of her sister ship Mauretania, the Cunard Line launched Lusitania in 1906, at a time of fierce competition for the North Atlantic trade. She made a total of 202 trans-Atlantic crossings, German shipping lines were aggressive competitors in the transatlantic trade, and Cunard responded by trying to outdo them in speed, capacity, and luxury. Both Lusitania and Mauretania were fitted with new turbine engines. They were equipped with lifts, wireless telegraph, and electric light, and provided 50% more passenger space than any other ship, the Royal Navy had blockaded Germany at the start of World War I. When RMS Lusitania left New York for Britain on 1 May 1915, on the afternoon of 7 May, a German U-boat torpedoed Lusitania,11 mi off the southern coast of Ireland and inside the declared war zone. A second, unexplained, internal explosion sent her to the seabed in 18 minutes, with the deaths of 1,198 passengers, because the Germans sank, without warning, what was officially a non-military ship, many accused them of breaching the internationally recognized Cruiser Rules. It was no longer possible, however, for submarines to give warning due to the British introduction of Q-ships in 1915 with concealed deck guns, the sinking caused a storm of protest in the United States as 128 American citizens were among the dead. The sinking helped shift public opinion in the United States against Germany, after World War I, successive British governments maintained there were no munitions on board the Lusitania and the Germans were not justified in treating the ship as a naval vessel. In 1897 the NDL liner Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse captured the Blue Riband from Cunards Campania, NDL soon wrested the prize back in 1903 with the new Kaiser Wilhelm II and Kronprinz Wilhelm. Cunard saw their passenger numbers affected as a result of the so-called Kaiser-class ocean liners, in 1902, IMM, NDL, and HAPAG entered into a Community of Interest to fix prices and divide among them the transatlantic trade. The partners also acquired a 51% stake in the Dutch Holland America Line, IMM made offers to purchase Cunard which, along with the French CGT, were now their principal rivals. Cunard declined the offer, even though they lacked the resources to respond with new ships. Cunard chairman Lord Inverclyde thus approached the British government for assistance, by an agreement signed in June 1903, Cunard was given a loan of £2.6 million to finance two ships, repayable over 20 years at a favourable interest rate of 2. 75%. The ships would receive an operating subsidy of £75,000 each plus a mail contract worth £68,000. In return the ships would be built to Admiralty specifications so that they could be used as cruisers in wartime. Cunard established a committee to decide upon the design for the new ships, of which James Bain, parsons maintained that he could design engines capable of maintaining a speed of 25 knots, which would require 68,000 shaft horsepower. Turbines offered the advantages of generating less vibration than the engines and greater reliability in operation at high speeds
East Aurora travel guide from Wikivoyage
